Seems to me that's a lot of work. Based upon what *others* have said, if you upload the files back to the Tivo in "Transport Stream format", then they will still have the captions that they had originally.

I realize that's different from having open (burned in) captions, but maybe that will solve your issue?

I've wondered about trying that too (download things in transport stream, DON'T decode, and then find out how to set the GUI pytivo front end I use to use transport stream).

alexofindy: Since in this case the files were already downloaded as program streams, you should decrypt them, then just allow pyTivo to send them back as transport streams, using the ts = on option. (It won't remux .TiVo files, so you'll have to decrypt them first.)

mattack: pyTivo will send transport-stream-mode .TiVo files back in their original format regardless of the ts setting.

OK, so then my GUI PyTivo will probably "just work"? I should try turning ON transport mode and turning OFF decrypt in kmttg, just so I can send a show back to the Tivo... for experimentation. For shows that I'm downloading to "offload", that's better.

(Because tivodecode doesn't work for most TS shows.. I should try the patch mentioned earlier in this thread.. I think it was an earlier version I tried once, that would just crash for me.)

I have many archived .TiVo files on a fileserver, that don't show captions when I transfer them back to my Tivo. They are in .ps containers. I'm trying to come up with a one-step process to add the captions back in. I can use kmttg to decrypt the files (by invoking tivodecode), and extract the captions to an .srt file (by invoking ccextractor); I'd like to also have it encode the files with the captions burnt in (hardcoded) so they'll display when I transfer the files back to my Tivo.

I've tried making an encoding profile for both handbrake and ffmpeg that will burn the captions back, but the syntax is driving me bonkers - I keep getting error messages.

Are there any example profiles out there that illustrate burning captions with either ffmpeg or handbrake?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

To add hardcoded subs from srt file:

handbrake: add following to an existing kmttg profile:
-vf subtitles=SRTFILE

If your goal is to send back to TiVo, a better option if you have VideoRedo is you can save as transport stream mpeg2 file and they send back to TiVo using pyTivo with "ts=on" option in video section of config. There is a bug with series 4 software where mpeg2 program stream container kills captions, but transport stream container does not.

(I'm not sure if simply using ts=on with pyTivo to pull existing mpeg2 program stream container file will work as ffmpeg may throw out the captions when remuxing. I know that VideoRedo does preserve captions when remuxing, hence the above suggestion).

If your goal is to send back to TiVo, a better option if you have VideoRedo is you can save as transport stream mpeg2 file and they send back to TiVo using pyTivo with "ts=on" option in video section of config. There is a bug with series 4 software where mpeg2 program stream container kills captions, but transport stream container does not.

You didn't mention specifically how to remux from mpeg2 program stream format to mpeg2 transport stream format in a way that preserves the captions in format TiVo likes. It's possible ffmpeg via pyTivo with ts=on can do it directly, but I KNOW that going VideoRedo route works for sure.
(Also it took me a while to post since I had to look up and try up the ffmpeg hard sub option, so I sat on my response a long while before posting and didn't yet see your post).

So I *can't* just keep the .Tivo file and have it never decoded? I thought I could do that.
i.e. decode in TS and leave it that way.

But are you claiming that *without* tivodecode for TS, I could download (in non-TS), and still have the program then re-uploaded in TS so I *would* still have captions?

Click to expand...

No, if your .TiVo files are PS container then you have a problem since you need to convert to TS container in a way that preserves captions before sending back to series 4 TiVo.

If you are just using your computer for long term storage with goal of going back to a series 4 TiVo then just download in TS format and keep it as TS .TiVo. Then as wmcbrine mentioned you can then send it back using pyTivo (with or without ts=on) and captions will work fine. Problem with TS .TiVo files is that without VideoRedo there is really nothing further you can do with them as there isn't a tivodecode version that works reliably to decrypt them. Some people apparently have some success decrypting TS .TiVo files with tivodecode 0.4.4, but I never had any luck with it - it either fails right away or if it doesn't fail then typically there will be sections with heavy macroblocking that weren't decrypted properly.

So problem only really comes about if you already have PS .TiVo files or want to encode to some other format with captions to send back to a TiVo series 4 unit. Using VideoRedo is really only good option for that.

I'm pretty sure I found that pyTivo won't send the .Tivo program stream files back to the Tivo unless I first decrypted them. I think I also had to re-encode them. Also, even after I got them into a form that I could send back to the .Tivo with captions, with ts=on, the captions were corrupted - they were recognizable, but had many text errors. I'm leaving out details here, as I don't have my notes handy, but although it seemed like it should work, it just didn't.

On the other hand, if I decrypt the files and then run ccextractor either directly or using kmttg as a front end, the captions are uncorrupted.

I think burning them into the video using moyekj's syntax is my best bet. kmttg can do this in one step. If that doesn't work, I'll try a trial of videoredo, and purchase the program if that is successful.

moyekj: does it matter where in the command line of the encoding profiles I put the strings you mention? Is just before the "OUTPUT" OK?

Which one did the Premiere (Series 4) introduce, TS or PS? I know TiVo desktop has an option to transfer in a mode that either works with Premiere-only, or a mode that works with the HD/S3 as well, but it doesn't say TS/PS...

Which one did the Premiere (Series 4) introduce, TS or PS? I know TiVo desktop has an option to transfer in a mode that either works with Premiere-only, or a mode that works with the HD/S3 as well, but it doesn't say TS/PS...

I've been using KMTTG for years without any issues (amazing program)... but recently my computer crashed and I set up a brand new one. Everything installed and started working from scratch very easily!
(again... amazing program!)

The only issue I've found is that ProjectX can't handle some shows. They are "mpg" files, but I get an error in the log when ProjectX tries to cut their commercials:
2013_04_22_16:49:52 ERROR: xcl file not found: C:\Users\RedMan\Documents\Current\00KMTTG\Family Feud (04_22_2013)(15_00).mpg.Xcl
2013_04_22_16:49:55 ERROR: input video=eia-608: projectxcut only supports mpeg2 video

It "feels" like I'm missing a codec or something??

Thanks again for the continued development and support of this!!

-RedMan

Click to expand...

I am having the exact same problem...I looked through the thread but did not find a solution. I don't see how, if kmttg is decrypting it to mpeg2 with the tivodecode binary, how it can NOT be in the proper format needed to run qsfix?